Why do we need pipelines?

Canadians rely on natural gas and products made from crude oil to meet more than two-thirds of their energy needs each and every day. For instance, 94 per cent of transportation demand in Canada is supplied by refined petroleum products and more than half of Canadian homes are heated by natural gas.

There are many methods that can be used to deliver these products to Canadians, but pipelines are a safe and environmentally-friendly way of transporting oil and gas over long distances. In fact, transmission pipelines deliver 97 per cent of Canada’s onshore oil and gas from producing regions to markets throughout Canada and the United States.

Shipping energy across vast distances to the people who need it

Oil and gas is found across Canada, but mainly in the Western regions of the country – sometimes in very remote places. But as the majority of our population lives in the more southerly regions across Canada – over 80 per cent live within 350 km of the U.S. border – pipelines are the most practical way to deliver oil and gas from the remote producing regions to our country’s more populated areas.

Buried underground, transmission pipelines are safe, efficient and capable of transporting large quantities of product.

Powering Canada’s economy

Pipelines are an important industry to Canadians, providing jobs in communities large and small, as well as considerable tax revenues. Pipelines also contribute to our prosperity when we export oil and gas to other countries.

Based on current operations alone, Canada’s transmission pipelines are expected to add $175 billion to Canada’s economy over the next 30 years.